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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Well, this photo was really "goodbye, deer!" But it was the only one I got, so it will have to do.

My lawn mower went in for an oil change and blade sharpening on May 7. I had not cut the grass in a week when it was picked up, but I figured it would be back in a few days and I could cut it then. Instead, the business that brought it in apparently had a walk-out. Then when they finally got to my mower last week they broke the blade spindle and needed to wait for the part. The mower was delivered back to me yesterday, June 2.

You can imagine how long the grass grew! Luckily I had friends do me the exceptionally good deed of trailering their mower to my house and cutting the grass inside the fence so that the dogs wouldn't disappear! But outside the fence it is over two feet high.

I cut a path with the string trimmer and then started the slow process of mowing yesterday.

The blade kept getting tangled and I'd have to back off and allow it to chomp up the grass. I only got one wide path cut from north to south, and the area around the vegetable beds.

Shift to this morning....

I woke before sunrise, but the sky was growing light. The dogs snoozed back-to-back on the bed next to me. It felt truly indulgent and lazy. Then suddenly Phoebe slide off the bed and trotted to the window where she likes to watch wildlife. And the barking began.

I sat up in bed and saw what I've never seen before -- two deer standing right next to the fence! I realized that was where the path was. Even deer prefer the path of less resistance when it's offered! I jumped from bed to calm Phoebe down, and together we watched the beautiful deer sniff and graze as they slowly made their way from north to south, disappearing behind the barn.

Moments later their scent must have made it through the open window, because Ulani suddenly sprang into action, barking furiously and trying to figure out where they went! So we all got up. I took a couple of minutes to pull on some clothes (and give the deer a chance to move on).

Once outside, I saw that the deer were now out in the cornfield next to us. That's where I took the photo. And I discovered that we weren't the only ones observing nature this morning!

On solitude and chickens

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. -- Thoreau

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. -- Colette

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other. -- Rilke

As innocent as a new-laid egg. -- W. S. Gilbert

Raising children is like being pecked to death by chickens. --Anonymous, but my mother gave it to me!

Language...has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone. --Paul Johannes Tillich

Life begins when you plant a garden. -- Chinese proverb

The great omission in American life is solitude...that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incubator of the spirit. --Marya Mannes

If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs. -- Russian proverb

When the superficial wearies me, it wearies me so much that I need an abyss in order to rest. --Antonio Porchia

Cocks may crow, but it's the hen that lays the eggs. -- Attr. Margaret Thatcher

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. -- Henry David Thoreau